At Kleinpeter Dairy, we strive to provide our customers with the highest quality products and best possible service.
Your feedback provides valuable insight into this effort. We would love to hear your ideas and opinions regarding Kleinpeter Farms Dairy's products and services.
If you love one of our products, let us know. You can use the form below to tell us which product, when and where you purchased it and why you enjoyed it.
Conversely, if you are not satisfied with one of our products, you can use the form below to tell us why.
There are many factors that affect the quality, taste and shelf-life of our dairy products. Failure to maintain the proper temperature is a primary cause of reduced shelf-life. This can occur at many different stages such as delivery, grocery coolers, transporting home, home refrigerators and even handling in the home.
Here are some facts and tips regarding the handling and storage of your milk and other dairy products.
- To keep milk at its best quality and flavor and to prolong shelf-life, always store milk and milk products between 32 °F and 36 °F.
- Constant refrigeration is the secret to fresh-tasting milk. Never leave milk unrefrigerated before, during or after serving. Milk left unrefrigerated or improperly refrigerated will lose flavor and quality in as few as 10 minutes.
- Re-refrigerating milk that has warmed will not reverse these effects.
- When transporting milk home from your favorite grocery retailer be sure to travel directly home and re-refrigerate your dairy products immediately. Running other errands will delay refrigeration and dramatically affect the quality, taste and shelf-life of your favorite milk products.
- Leaving your refrigerator door open for extended periods of time, an improperly maintained or malfunctioning refrigerator, or setting the refrigerator temperature control too warm will all raise the internal temperature of your refrigerator and therefore reduce the quality and shelf-life of your favorite milk and dairy products.
- If you store your milk on your refrigerator door, please move it to an inner shelf. Studies have shown as much as a 5 °F or more difference in internal temperatures between the inner shelves and door trays. This temperature variance can dramatically reduce shelf-life over a short period of time.
- Many modern refrigerators have advanced electronics and indicators such as lights, alarms or LED readouts. These indicators will sometime tell you the current internal temperature or the current "set" temperature or both. Be sure you read and understand all literature related to your appliance so that you know your dairy products and all food stored in your refrigerator are maintained at the appropriate temperature to ensure food quality and safety.
- To preserve the quality and shelf-life of your milk and for general food safety, it is important to verify the temperature of your refrigerator.
To accurately check the temperature of your refrigerator, place an appliance thermometer in a glass of water and place in the middle of the refrigerator. Wait 5 to 8 hours. Observe the reading. If the temperature is not optimal, adjust the refrigerator temperature control and repeat the process. Check again after 5 to 8 hours.
The United States Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) has an informative fact sheet on verifying refrigerators and freezers using appliance thermometers. This information can be viewed at this link: United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Food Safety and Inspection Service Appliance Thermometer Fact Sheet
- An American Dairy Association chart detailing the effect of temperature on milk quality and shelf-life can be viewed at this link: American Dairy Association Cold Milk Chart.